Jack McDevitt (1935-) is an American science fiction author whose novels frequently deal with attempts to make contact with alien races and archaeology.
McDevitt's first published story was "The Emerson Effect" in Twilight Zone in 1984. Two years later, he published his first novel, The Hercules Text about the discovery of an intelligently conceived signal which threatened human civilization through its repercussions. This novel set the tone for many of McDevitt's following novels, which focused on making first contact. Frequently this theme is mixed with both trepidation of the unknown and a sense of wonder at the universe.
With The Engines of God (1994), McDevitt introduced the idea of a universe which was once teaming with intelligent species, but only contains abandoned artifacts by the time humans manage to arrive on the scene. Initially written as a stand alone novel, the character Priscilla Hutchins has since appeared in two more novels, Deepsix (2001) and Chindi (2002) with at least one more novel promised. He may begin to reveal the answers to the mysteries of the universe which he has been building up.
McDevitt's novels frequently raise questions which they do not attempt to answer, dropping the ideas in favor of other plotlines which are of more interest to the author.